


wherever I wander, wherever I roam

by ladanse



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, M/M, spock stuck with the vsa and jim became a space pirate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 19:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13596918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladanse/pseuds/ladanse
Summary: They find the child in the burned-out hull of a Romulan command shuttle."I," she says, and stops. "Jaylah.""I am Captain Spock, of the Vulcan Science Academy's Class-Nine outfitted research vessel. For what purpose have you been abandoned here?"She stares at him, then grins, wide and gap-toothed. "Captainspock," she says, giggling. "Are funny."





	wherever I wander, wherever I roam

**Author's Note:**

> this is (very, very, very) loosely based off The Jungle Book, with Spock as Bagheera and Jim as Baloo lmaooo
> 
> (also jaylah was with the romulans at first bc romulus and the wolves and mowgli get it hahaha look i'm so smart)
> 
> valid8 me pls

 

They find the child in the burned-out hull of a Romulan command shuttle.

  
Ordinarily, they would not even approach the smoking wreck; but the scanners are clear, the viewscreen is empty but for the black of stars, and her desperation is clear to even the lowest psi-rated of the crew.

  
It is only logical to approach, to rescue. To preserve life, especially in the absence of danger.

  
This is what Captain Spock tells himself, when he brings around his newly outfitted vessel to dock.

  
" _Jolan tru_ ," is what he tells her, in Romulan formal overtones. She is not Romulan, but rather a species Spock has not seen before; she responds in stilted Romulan, and then in even less intelligible Earth Standard.

  
"I," she says, and stops. "Jaylah."

  
"I am Captain Spock, of the Vulcan Science Academy's Class-Nine outfitted research vessel. For what purpose have you been abandoned here?"

  
She stares at him, then grins, wide and gap-toothed. "Captainspock," she says, giggling. "Are funny."

  
"It is a name. Amusement is illogical." The space beneath the right side of his ribs feels strange; he will have to report it to his CMO.

  
"Captainspock," she says again, taking his hand in her tiny fingers. "You have...food?"

  
His hesitation causes her brow to knit with suspicion; she lets go of him, and his fingers feel curiously cold. "Yes," he says, voice uncharacteristically reassuring. "I will ensure you receive proper sustenance and a medical exam. Please follow me."

  
Her smile this time is a bit more assured. "Come!" she says, and skips toward the docking bay.

  
This once, Spock allows himself the indulgence of a moment to reflect on his internal state - a light happiness, rising in his chest - before turning to trail after her.

  
*

  
"Jaylah," says Spock, long-suffering. His commandants and science officers are staring, circumspectly. "Please use the utensils I have provided you with to complete your meal."

  
Jaylah lifts a stalk of celery in her hands, and puts it into her mouth with a mighty, echoing crunch.

  
"No," she says.

  
"Please," Spock repeats. He never repeats himself. He has never felt such an acute sense of desperation in public; throwing out the Starfleet application he'd never submitted barely came close.

  
"No!" says Jaylah, enjoying the opportunity for defiance. Then, "When I go home?"

  
"Please recall our discussion about Earth Standard verb tense," says Spock. "The proper question is, 'When will I go home?' Additionally, as you know, you cannot go home." That had been relatively easy to discover; the planet where she belonged was a mining one, colonized and abandoned by Romulus only to fall to a particularly brutal group of militants.

  
"I want to," says Jaylah. "I go home and I use ut-utenseel." Her face is innocent, and reasonable. Spock does not believe it in the slightest.

  
"Both your continued refusal and your proposition are illogical," says Spock. "If you continue such behavior, you will not be permitted to sit with the Engineering department tomorrow."

  
Jaylah's eyes go wide. Spock thinks of his last engagement with a Romulan warbird, summons the same courage he had needed then, and stares her down.

  
She gives an angry little grunt, and picks up the knife with extreme prejudice.

  
"Thank you," says Spock. She huffs, loudly.

  
Perhaps his sojourn the previous night with "Eight Styles of Interspecies Parenting" had, in fact, been well spent.

  
*

  
Despite the complication of Jaylah's presence, Spock cannot justify delaying the primary purpose of their mission. They must make land eventually - to continue exploration - and so they do.

  
Despite the fact that it constitutes a violation of VSA regulations, and not to mention that it will compromise Spock's ability to effectively observe the environment, Jaylah is included in the landing party that beams to the surface.

  
None if his subordinates demand an explanation, secure in the knowledge that Spock would never concede one. As for Spock himself, well - he has resolutely refused to calculate the rate of decrease in time needed for Jaylah to beg before he gives her absolutely anything she wants.

  
The planet is Class-M, well-suited for research and exploration, with several well-known and objectively lucrative crops, as well as a climate suitable for growing a large variety of illegal substances.

  
Spock takes a soil sample, and offers his tricorder to Jaylah.

  
She pokes at it curiously, and then gestures at a plant. "Because of...spikes?"

  
"Correct," says Spock, ignoring the swell of pride in his chest. Illogical.

  
Her smiles come easier now. Jaylah looks around, and begins to wander towards a particularly garish flower.

  
Spock looks down to take another sample. When he looks back up, Jaylah is gone.

  
*

  
They follow the slavers' ship across four star systems. Spock does not sleep or meditate for eighty-five standard Vulcan hours.

  
Exactly one ensign raises the question of abandoning her. His commanding officer immediately relieves him from duty for gross insubordination and the failure to behave as befits a Vulcan.

  
When Spock hears about this, something cold and hard loosens in his chest. In service of Jaylah, the crew which has cast him out his entire life has consolidated behind him.

  
He will not fail her.

  
*

  
They search the ship. Jaylah is not on it.

  
Spock lets their warp core catch fire and implode with no hint of remorse.

  
The slavers' gunners had been destroyed by a skilled pilot whose weapons bear marks of being homemade. Spock allows himself to relax, if slightly; they track the second ship at a more sedate pace.

  
"You know whom we seek," says his first, on the morning of the second day.

  
"Yes," says Spock. "Jaylah is safe."

  
They find the smuggler's well-outfitted cruiser meandering lazily through a dense nebula. Spock steels himself when the docks click together, and allows himself to adjust his robes to a more flattering orientation.

  
"James Tiberius Kirk," Spock intones gravely.

  
"Spock!" says Jim, too loud and too enthusiastic. Jaylah is tinkering furiously with something in the middle of the room, and there is an angry strain of classical music blasting from a central speaker.

  
Spock is already stiff. When Jim claps him on the shoulder, he stiffens further, and Jim laughs.

  
"Still a hardass, huh?" he says. Then, "Jaylah, come see who it is."

  
Jaylah looks up, and her whole face brightens in a way Spock has not realized he has missed. "Captainspock!" she cries, and then runs at him and attempts to tackle him to the ground.

  
Spock catches her easily, and holds her to his chest like she is something precious.

  
"So you do have a heart," says Jim. He doesn't look surprised. If anything, he looks - curious. Assessing.

  
A shiver runs its way lightly up Spock's back, and his voice is rough when he replies. "All Vulcans possess a heart, Captain Kirk, underneath the third - "

  
"Yeah, yeah," says Jim. He leans into Spock's space - Spock holds his breath - and just as suddenly retreats. Spock blinks, coming back to himself, as Jim holds up the screwdriver he has extracted from Jaylah's grip - and, devastatingly, smirks.

  
The times when Spock regrets his human mother are very, very few. But he does not think she would mind his consternation at the way blood rises, green and sudden, to his cheeks.

  
*

  
Living among a human crew has given Jaylah ideas that Spock heartily disapproves of, including an abhorrence to baths and the notion that an attempt should be made to retake her home planet.

  
"Please repeat yourself, Captain Kirk," is what Spock says, icy and clipped, the first time it is suggested.

  
"Saying it a second time doesn't change that you're going to say no," says Jim, cheerily. "That's why I faked a transmission from Vulcan High Command."

  
"You did what," says Spock, and then, "how?"

  
"Doesn't matter." Jim claps him on the shoulder, and grins. "Your ship is going to meet us at about 2238, which means we have two standard weeks to take back a planet."

  
Spock stares at him, unimpressed.

  
"It'll be fun?" Jim tries.

  
"No, it won't!" yells the petulant voice of the ship's medical officer, who is currently chasing Jaylah around the main deck with a hypo clutched in his left hand and a tricorder in his right. He stops, briefly, next to them, giving Spock a once-over. "How are you, you green-blooded bastard?"

  
"Doctor McCoy," says Spock, not dignifying him with a response. Jim, who is possibly the only person to be aware of the grudging respect that Spock harbours for the doctor, looks between them and grins.

  
"Sure it will, Bones," he says. "Just you wait."

  
*

  
The humans' ship is, as always, chaotic. Scotty, the ship's engineer, resorts to wildly complicated and almost always illogical means to streamline the ship's fuel intake, meaning they never have to stop but also that Spock's meditation is disturbed nightly by occult noises and an incessant low humming.

  
Captain Kirk only adds to the disordered running of the ship, arguing hourly and publicly with his communications officer, Uhura, and flirting outrageously with her and his helmsman and Doctor McCoy, all while on duty. Spock does not care to scrutinize why this causes him to clip his words and quote a statistically higher number of Vulcan philosophers each hour, except that it makes the Captain smile and nudge him instead.

  
"Jealous, Spock?" he'll say, before turning back to the viewscreen.

  
On the second day, Jaylah asks why Jim can't come back to the Vulcan ship with them, and her little brow furrows at the way Jim's eyes go distant, his smile a little sad.

  
"He is human," Spock answers, keeping his voice very carefully steady. "No other species is permitted access to the resources of the Vulcan Science Academy."

  
"James-Tee says rules have - " she stops, struggling - "septions."

  
"Ex-cep-tions," Spock enunciates. "That is not often the case for Vulcan rules. There has only been one such example, in which the human in question was bonded with - or, as humans would say, married to  - a Vulcan."

  
Jaylah brightens. "James-Tee," she says, "why you don't marry a Vulcan?"

  
"Well," says Jim, not looking at Spock. "No Vulcan's ever asked."

  
*

  
Spock invests two nights in meditation, contemplation, and a thorough review of all paths and the consequences they imply. On the third, Spock rises gracefully from the mat next to his berth, wraps himself in a robe that reveals exactly as much of his chest as is necessary, and presses the buzzer for admittance to the Captain's quarters.

  
Jim answers, chest bare and eyes warm. "Only three days, this time," he says. Spock nods, unable to trust his words, and holds out two fingers. They are shaking, as they are every first time; but, then, he has never done this outside of Jim's quarters, out in plain sight.

  
The quiet warmth of Jim's fingers steadies Spock's hand. Spock runs his fingers, slowly, towards Jim's palm, and sighs minutely at the heat that curls and settles at the base of his spine. When he looks back up, Jim's eyes are dark.

  
"Come in," he says, "please," and slides his other hand to the back of Spock's neck, sets his lips to the corner of Spock's mouth, ever gentle. Spock feels faint from wanting, and allows Jim to guide him inside.

  
*

  
They lie together in Jim's hopelessly mussed bed, curled into each other, Jim's fingers stroking absentmindedly at Spock's ear.

  
"Stay," says Jim, as he always does.

  
"Bond with me," says Spock, as he never has.

  
Jim's fingers stop. Spock cannot breathe.

  
"Do you mean that?" Jim's hands are shaking as he tilts Spock's chin upwards, trying to look him in the eye.

  
"The Vulcan High Council would never have permitted an assault on Altamid," says Spock, avoiding his gaze. "They would have deemed it pertinent, but illogical." He takes a deep breath, in and out, then - "I wish to join Starfleet. I also ask you to come with me."

  
When Spock finds the courage to meet Jim's eyes, they are sparkling. "If you insist," says Jim. "But I'm going to be captain, Mister Spock. Not you."

  
For the first time in months, Spock's shoulders relax, slightly, and he brings his hand up to stroke Jim's jaw. "Very well," he says. "Captain."

  
*

  
Jim beams them down to Altamid with very little in the way of a plan. However, his faith in his crew is nearly absolute, and he won't tolerate questions from either Spock or Doctor McCoy; this means that both of them end up trapped, back-to-back, between two advancing factions of enhanced humans. As far as Spock has been able to determine, one is led by the crazed superhuman Khan, who intends to kidnap Jaylah for her knowledge of the planet's mining infrastructure, and the other by Krall, a man who seems uncomplicatedly angry and as he screams at Jim about an artifact he's stolen.

  
Spock fires his blaster, three times precisely, into the body of one of his attackers; McCoy swears and nails another two. They duck behind a rock, and Spock begins to scan the area.

  
"Where's Jaylah," growls the doctor, wild around the eyes. Spock remembers abruptly that the doctor has an estranged daughter approximately the same age.

  
"I cannot see her," says Spock, and gestures to higher ground.

  
Then - to borrow a human expression - all hell breaks loose, as sixteen copies of Jim on the human deathtrap known as a two-hundred-year-old motorcycle emerge from behind a rock, shooting from six directions at once. The crew cheer and redouble their efforts; their attackers turn away, converging on the disturbance.

  
"He's using himself as bait," McCoy cries, making to follow. Spock catches his shoulder.

  
"We must locate Jaylah," he says, and McCoy's eyes go flinty.

  
"God, man," he says. "Jim might die!"

  
"If Jim dies," Spock responds, "I will kill all of these men indiscriminately. However, Jim can defend himself; Jaylah must be our priority." It is the most honest he has ever been; McCoy just stares at him, jaw clenched.

  
"Fine," says McCoy. "Let's find her."

  
*

  
Khan has Jaylah deep in a mineshaft, and is holding her by the neck as the magnetic rock around them shakes with the disturbance from above.

  
Spock's vision runs red, then white.

  
When he comes to, Khan is pinned against the wall, Spock's hands in position for a nerve pinch around his face; Khan's hands are locked around his throat. From somewhere behind them, McCoy is yelling.

  
Spock feels his vision begin to distort: an insufficient intake of oxygen. He estimates thirty seconds before the nerve pinch will become effective; thirty seconds before his trachea will be crushed. He thinks of Jim.

  
Then - there is the sound of a phaser firing, three times; the grip around Spock's neck goes slack, and he shudders in a choked, gasping breath.

  
His vision clears slowly. The first thing he sees is Jaylah, her hands locked tightly around the phaser, brow clenched in determination, mouth open in a tiny roar.

  
"Jaylah," he rasps, and drops to his knees.

  
"Captainspock!" she cries, and buries herself in his arms.

  
*

  
Spock is confined to sickbay for three days following the incident, which he understands to be McCoy's expression of gratitude for saving Jaylah's life.

  
"Most illogical," he tells Jim, who has not left his side since.

  
Jim just smiles. "That's what I told him."

  
Jaylah sits on the bed next to Spock, reading from a PADD. She, too, has refused to leave sickbay; Spock thinks it 93.4% likely that this is due to her fascination with McCoy's Southern idioms, while Jim thinks otherwise.

  
"What is 'plasmic'?" she asks, pointing, and Spock feels the weight of Jim's eyes as he explains.

  
*

  
Later, when she is asleep, Spock confesses his concern. "Her family is gone," he says, "her planet destroyed. However, she needs a home."

  
Jim looks at him, and begins to scroll through his PADD; then, he hands it to Spock. The screen is open to a notarized set of adoption papers.

  
Spock, for the first time, understands ironic humor, and he opens his own PADD to reveal the same document.

  
"We cannot both file for custody," he says.

  
"You can do it," says Jim, and shrugs at Spock's raised eyebrow. "We're both joining Starfleet, remember? It won't be a problem."

  
Spock notes the slight anxiety set into the curve of his neck, the tapping of his fingers. "I am simply concerned about timing," he explains. "I will be set on the advanced track due to my experience at the Academy. Additionally, as you are aware, Vulcans learn faster than humans."

  
Jim's eyes sparkle with mischief, and relief. "Don't worry," he says. "I'll catch up."

**Author's Note:**

> Jaylah is my queen and my daughter & I love her
> 
> kudos & comments save my life I love y'all


End file.
